North Korea said on Thursday that the stopover in South Korea of a US nuclear submarine “crossed the red line” Pyongyang had set for the use of nuclear weapons.
“I remind the United States military that the high-profile deployment of the strategic nuclear submarine and other strategic assets may fall under the terms of the use of nuclear weapons specified in the current legislation of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) on nuclear weapons policy, North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam said.
“Like US gangsters and ROK [Coreia do Sul] have crossed the ‘red line’ with their military hysteria, it is now time for the DPRK to once again clarify the choice of action and direction of reaction.” This is what the minister says in a statement from the North Korean news agency KCNA.
According to the North Korean minister, “the military security situation on the Korean peninsula, which has undergone a fundamental change due to reckless military actions by the US and its followers, more clearly indicates the mission that the DPRK’s nuclear weapons should perform.”
“The US military must realize that its nuclear assets have entered extremely dangerous waters,” the North Korean minister threatened.
“The DPRK Armed Forces will responsibly fulfill their important mission of defending the country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and fundamental interests and preventing nuclear war in the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asian region, the US and its lackeys are deterred and completely repelled from using nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula,” said Kang Sun Nam.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday in apparent response to the arrival of a US submarine loaded with nuclear weapons in South Korea.
North Korea’s launches came just hours after the first meeting of the so-called Nuclear Consultation Council (NCG) between Seoul and Washington.
After the session, the US National Security Council’s Indo-Pacific coordinator, Kurt Campbell, announced the arrival in Busan, about 220 miles southeast of Seoul, of the USS Kentucky submarine, a nuclear-powered submarine capable of carrying nuclear weapons . , the first of its kind to visit South Korea in nearly 40 years.
Both the creation of the NCG and the sending of the submarine were agreed in April, with the signing of the Washington Declaration by US and South Korean presidents Joe Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol, respectively.
In the document, the US promises to strengthen its so-called “extended deterrence”, protecting its ally and trying to discourage Pyongyang from continuing to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The North Korean Defense Ministry had already condemned the US plan to send the submarine to South Korea.
Thereafter Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, accused the US of invading North Korean airspace and on July 12, the regime launched its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Hwasong-18.
The test was condemned by United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres.
The UN stressed that the missile tested last week landed in the waters of Russia’s exclusive economic zone and that 75 minutes may be the longest flight of this type of missile ever tested by the North Korean military.
Wednesday’s launches also came after a US soldier crossed the border into North Korea on a tourist visit and is currently in detention.
Source: DN
